Wednesday, 2 January 2019

Why I Drove My Amphibious Car From Lagos To Abuja – Obasanjo

A Nigeria inventor and researcher, Durojaiye Kehinde Obasanjo, said he drove his locally made amphibious jet car for over 15 hours from Lagos to Abuja in his quest to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The car, which he said, moves on land, water, and air, was designed like an aircraft with wings and propellers making some residents to pass it for a moving aircraft on first sight on Abuja roads.

Obasanjo, who said he was going to Nigeria Airspace Research Management Authority to first report to the authorities, had stopovers at some bus stops on the airport road attracting the attention of pedestrians who touched, admired and took selfies with the seemingly strange automobile.

“The vehicle was designed to move on the land, sea and fly. But out of the three operations, I have achieved two, presently I moved it from the land and sea and it has been tested and drove all the way from Lagos down to Abuja for over 15 hours,” he said adding that he came to Abuja to see the president.

On why he desires to meet the president and vice president, he said “There was a car that I built to be mass produced in Nigeria to boost our GDP but some local government officials in Lagos destroyed that their boss told me it was an illegal venture.

“I reported the case to Governor Ambode of Lagos and he said they should meet with me but they ignored his directive. That is why I came to Abuja to report to the necessary quarters.

“So, I want to meet Mr President and Vice President to let them know what is going on how they destroyed that vehicle.”

He said the car, made from junks has been built for over one year in Lagos and has attracted an international audience and media houses including CNN which did a short documentary on the invention.

“That is why I go to the length of using junks so that people will see it and know what we can do. It runs on fuel and solar energy alternatively,” he said.

On his plan for commercialisation of the vehicle, “That is my intention and we want Nigeria to be the first to mass produce it for commercialisation. We want a car that moves on the land, sea and can fly. That is a breakthrough in the history of the transportation system in the world.”

He said the vehicle was installed with a floating device that makes it move on water “that is it cannot sink and it moves like watercraft when in water and moves like a normal car when on the ground and moves like aircraft when flying.”